Housing Board files FIR against 20 allotteesPanchkula, April 20The Housing Board , Haryana, has registered first information reports against 20
allottees of the LIG-II flats in Faridabad today. Irregularities in the allotment of over 700 LIG-II flats had come to light last year.

Cheating in Bt cotton seed’s nameFatehabad, April 20Some seed dealers in this area are cheating the farmers in the name of Bt cotton seed. Farmers are being charged unreasonable price for this seed of cotton which has not been approved by the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) for northern India.

Farmers bear brunt of slow liftingSirsa, April 20In spite of the government’s claim, the lifting of wheat from the local grain mandi and from other purchase centres of the district is going at a slow speed. due to this the surrounding roads, stadium and parks here are filled with wheat stocks.

Quality legislators needed: SinghviKurukshetra, April 20Mr Justice G.S. Singhvi, a Judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, has regretted the election of representatives of business houses, criminals and persons facing criminal charges to state legislatures and Parliament which has created several problems in the making and implementation of laws in the country.

Novel plan to check crimeRohtak, April 20Haryana Police has prepared a novel scheme to check crime by channelling the energy of people with a criminal bent of mind towards sports.

Work on diversion drain beginsAmbala, April 20Mr Anil Vij, MLA, today set in motion the work on a diversion drain which would help in ensuring that Ambala Cantonment is no longer a flood-prone area.The drain will start from the Boh-Babyal area, near Punjab-Haryana border, and lead to the Tangri river. The diversion drain will be 2,800-foot-long and about seven-foot-deep. It will have a capacity of 80 cusecs.

Bus service for pilgrims launchedKurukshetra, April 20The state Transport Minister, Mr Ashok Arora, flagged off a daily bus service linking local historical and religious places, “Kurukshetra darshan”, here last evening. The minister reiterated that the Haryana state Transport Nigam would not be privatised.

Panchkula, April 20
The Housing Board , Haryana, has registered first information reports against 20
allottees of the LIG-II flats in Faridabad today. Irregularities in the allotment of over 700 LIG-II flats had come to light last year.

All these allottees were booked today under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471 of the IPC, on a complaint submitted by the Secretary to Chief Administrator, Housing Board, Haryana. This follows a departmental inquiry , which had indicted around 40 allottees. Sources in the Board inform that the remaining allottees involved in this scam have been issued show-cause notices. In case the department did not receive reply from the allottees. FIR will be registered on charges of fraud and cheating, informed a senior official.

It is also learnt that the Chief Administrator has issued chargesheet orders to two officials in the department, for their alleged biased scrutinisation of the application forms.

The allotment letters issued to these 40-odd persons also stand cancelled. The applicants in the waiting list will now be considered for fresh allotment informed a senior Board officials.

It may be noted that the Housing Board had proposed a scheme for constructing 2700 houses in Sector 55, Faridabad in July 1998. While 1764 LIG-I houses were for general category, 200 LIG-I houses were for government employees and 716 LIG-II houses were meant for Class III and Class IV employees of autonomous institutions and other government employees.

Applications for the same were received within a month and subsequently the houses were allotted. In December last year, the Board officials discovered that a number of applicants for the 716 LIG-II houses did not know that houses had been allotted to them.

The inquiry, conducted by the XEN Vigilance, Housing Board, has reportedly revealed that certain unscrupulous property dealers, having close links with the land mafia there , had fraudulently got the allotments in the names of government employees by submitting their applications along with their salary details and photographs. In a number of cases, the applicants did not exist in the department mentioned in the application form.

Also, a number of places where the department of an applicant, as mentioned in his application, has not replied back to the inquiry officer, the applications have been cancelled. It is learnt that other than scrutinizing the 716
allottees, 28 applicants in the waiting list have also been scrutinized. The task of verifying the applicants was carried out by assistant engineers and executive engineers of the Housing Board.

Housing Board officials, meanwhile say that those who had allegedly submitted these fake documents for allotment have now gone underground. “As it is they have nothing to lose, but the earnest money submitted to the Board; approximately Rs 37000,” informed an officer.

Sources inform that this is not the first time that such a scam has been discovered. The land mafia, active in Faridabad, Karnal and Gurgaon, has often been indulging in similar practices in various schemes floated by the Housing Board.

Fatehabad, April 20
Some seed dealers in this area are cheating the farmers in the name of Bt cotton seed. Farmers are being charged unreasonable price for this seed of cotton which has not been approved by the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) for northern India.

The farmers, who have suffered heavy losses in cotton crop in the past few years due to the attack of
halitosis cotton moth (American bollworm) to their crops, have been falling in the trap to the seed dealers in the hope that this variety of seed may bring relief from phase of heavy losses they have been
incurring for the past six years or so.

According to knowledgeable sources, the new cotton seed is processed by injecting bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis in any good cotton seed. This variety of seed is known as Bt cotton and has been tested successfully in south India. As tests on the Bt Cotton have not been completed in north India, the ICAR has not yet accorded approval to sow this seeds in this part of the country.

The sources said that the bacterium injected in the seeds makes it immune to the attack of American bollworm for a period of 90 days. The cotton crop sown is usually around April 15 in this part of the country so the plants grown out of the Bt cotton are supposed to remain immune to the attack of the bollworm till middle of July. As the bollworm usually hits the crops by the middle of June, it has given hope among farmers that their crop could be saved by this variety of cotton seed.

But since the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) has not yet completed tests on this type of seed under climatic conditions prevalent in this part of the country and there is still no idea about the residual effect
to the bacillus present in the seed on humans and animals, the approval to use this cotton seed in northern India has not been granted.

But some certain dealers have been cashing in on the apprehensions of the farmers and selling cotton seeds in open bags for Rs 1500 per kg, a price 50 to 100 per cent higher than the actual price of the hybrid varieties of cotton seeds. The dealers claim that they have been bringing this seed from Gujarat and have been earning hefty margins on it. In most of the cases, the cotton seed being supplied to the farmers is of common varieties and is being sold without labels and without bills. The agriculture
authorities, while admitting knowledge of the activity of unscrupulous dealers find themselves helpless to act against them. The Haryana Deputy Director, Agriculture, Fatehabad, Mr L.C. Godara, said that the department would act against anybody found guilty of selling or sowing this variety as it was not approved. But he added that it was very difficult to act in such cases, as even if the department found the variety with a farmer, he would say that it was animal fodder.

Mr Godara said that the department had already organised farmers’ training camps at Bighar, Ahlisadar, Gorakhpur, Rattia and Kulan and informed the farmers about Bt cotton in detail. He said that the department had advised the farmers to sow HR-123, RG-8 and Hybrid AAH varieties of cotton and the sowing should be completed from April 1 to April 30. He said for the American cotton varieties HS-6, RST-9, LH-1556, H-147 and Hybrid 144, the sowing must be completed till May 5, 2002. For other American varieties like H-1098, H-777, F-846 and RS-875 the sowing must be over by May 30, 2002.

Sirsa, April 20
In spite of the government’s claim, the lifting of wheat from the local grain mandi and from other purchase centres of the district is going at a slow speed. due to this the surrounding roads, stadium and parks here are filled with wheat stocks. The condition of a posh residential colony, C-Block, here is such that the weighing, cleaning and filling of wheat in wheat bags are being done in front of the gates of bungalows.

The Commissioner, Hisar division, visited the local grain mandi the other day and after receiving complaints of slow lifting of wheat, instructed the agencies concerned to ensure timely lifting of wheat. Yesterday, when this correspondent visited the grain mandi, various farmers complained that they had been waiting for the purchase of their crop for the past two to four days.

Jaswinder Singh of Jhorarnali village of the district said his 65-year-old uncle Darshan Singh had been guarding his crop for the past five days. Darshan Singh, while complaining of slow lifting and procurement, added that this time procurement agencies were sending back their wheat on one or other excuse from godowns and freight charges were being levied on them. Leelu Ram of Darbakalan village, who brought two trollies of wheat two days ago was still waiting for his turn. Similar complaints were made by Neki Ram of Mehna Khera village and Babu Singh of Budhabhana.

Commission agents also complained of extra charges being asked from them for ensuring early lifting of their crop. The district president of the Congress, who is also a commission agent, while echoing the same said that due to the slow lifting and procurement, farmers were forced to guard their crop day and night in the open. Due to this, the only stadium of the city, Nehru Park and the streets surrounding the mandi are brimming with wheat stocks and bags.

District Food and Civil Supply Commissioner N.K. Mittal, while admitting the slow pace of lifting of wheat, attributed the reasons to the
excessive arrival of wheat. District Manager, Hafed, R.P Sahni, said it was due to shortage of labourers.

The Deputy Commissioner, Mr Ankur Gupta, admitted that the lifting of wheat was slow for the past two-three days and that was because of the arrival of more than 2 lakh quintal of wheat. He said he had called the contractor today and instructed him to ensure the timely lifting of wheat. The contractor had been asked to increase the number of labourers so that farmers should not complain of slow lifting. He, however, was not aware of the complaints about the delay in the procurement.

Chandigarh, April 20
More than 20 lakh tonnes of wheat had arrived in the mandis of Haryana till yesterday as against 6.41 lakh tonnes in the corresponding period last year.

Stating this here today, an official spokesman said that almost the entire wheat arriving in the mandis had been procured by government agencies at the MSP of Rs 620 per quintal.

The spokesman claimed that senior officers of the Haryana Government were touring mandis so that farmers did not face any inconvenience. He also said that the farmers were being paid for their produce within 48 hours of the purchase of wheat and added that officers of the state procuring agencies had been instructed to ensure clearance of mandis on day to day basis to make space for fresh arrivals.

Kurukshetra, April 20
Mr Justice G.S. Singhvi, a Judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, has regretted the election of representatives of business houses, criminals and persons facing criminal charges to state legislatures and Parliament which has created several problems in the making and implementation of laws in the country. Mr Justice Singhvi was addressing students and faculty members of the National Institute of Law at Kurukshetra University here today.

Referring to the overall depressing scenario in the country, he said it was unfortunate that Parliament proceedings had not been taking place properly since the past six days. Such a situation could be corrected only if the people asserted themselves and the might of people was realised.

Mr Justice Singhvi discussed the Preamble of the Constitution in detail and said it was the essence and the core of the values of everything precious in the country.

Although, the Preamble enjoined upon the law-makers and the government to secure to all its citizens, social, economic and political justice and protect the dignity of the individual, the system had degenerated to a great extent. “In Gujarat, one Hindustani is fighting against another Hindustani,” he said.

Mr Justice Singhvi regretted that while the people who framed the Constitution had great vision, the quality of law-makers and legislators had sharply degenerated.

He regretted corruption among members of the Public Service Commission which polluted the selection process and subsequently the administration. He urged the judiciary to realise its position and to see that no corrupt official was reinstated on technical grounds.

The judiciary owed a duty towards society to create conditions in which cases of custodial deaths could be minimised and environment could be protected.

However, he complimented the judiciary for playing a positive role in case of environmental protection, social welfare measures and in controlling deaths in police custody.

Earlier, welcoming Mr Justice Singhvi, the Vice-Chancellor of Kurukshetra University, Mr R.S. Chaudhry, said the National Institute of Law had been established to advance and disseminate legal knowledge with practical training in the fast-developing economic, political and social process.

Mr Justice Singhvi also launched the admission prospectus of the institute on the occasion.

Rohtak, April 20
Haryana Police has prepared a novel scheme to check crime by channelling the energy of people with a criminal bent of mind towards sports.

Stating this at a press conference here today, the Director-General of Police, Mr M.S.Malik, said one village leading in the crime rate in each subdivision would be adopted by the police under the scheme.

He said rural games, including kabaddi and wrestling, would be promoted in the adopted villages by athletes of the department. A gazetted police officer would supervise the activities to be carried out in the villages.

Commenting on the achievements of the police, the DGP claimed that the Haryana Police had smashed 106 gangs of hardcore and interstate criminals and recovered looted property worth Rs.2.07 crore from them during the current year till March 31. He said a decrease of 194 cases registered under the IPC was recorded as against those registered during the corresponding period last year.

Appreciating the functioning of the Rohtak Range police, he said it had worked out 89 pc cases of dowry deaths, 96 pc of eve-teasing and molestation and 85 pc rape cases during the first quarter of the year.

He said the women cells had been set up at all range headquarters as per the policy of the state government to prevent and detect crime against women.

Presiding over a meeting of Rohtak Range G.Os, he directed them to take immediate action against the law-breakers and legal measures so as to ensure peace and order in society. A monitoring cell to ensure successful investigation of cases had also been set up at the Police Headquarters Panchkula.

Mr Malik said the Haryana Police had also prepared and sent a citizens’ charter to the government for approval, which would be circulated among senior citizens, zila parishads, block samitis and municipal corporations for creating awareness among the masses regarding the rights and duties of the citizens.

The Haryana Police had prepared a beat book on various aspects of better policing which would be very useful in the prevention and detection of crime, he added.

Ambala, April 20
Mr Anil Vij, MLA, today set in motion the work on a diversion drain which would help in ensuring that Ambala Cantonment is no longer a flood-prone area.

The drain will start from the Boh-Babyal area, near Punjab-Haryana border, and lead to the Tangri river. The diversion drain will be 2,800-foot-long and about seven-foot-deep. It will have a capacity of 80 cusecs.

Mr Anil Vij said the diversion drain would end at a minor reservoir from where water would be pumped into the Tangri river. The project would cost about Rs 50 lakh and it was expected to be completed before the rainy season this year, he said.

He said there were two reasons for Ambala Cantonment being flood-prone. The first being the excess water during rains and the second being the entering of water into Ambala Cantonment from the catchment areas in the hills. “In Ambala Cantonment, water continues to rise even after the rainy season is over. The diversion drain will help in taking out the water which enters from the catchment areas,” he said.

He said to take out excess water, there were two drains — Mahesh Nagar drain and Gurguria nullah. “Regarding Mahesh Nagar drain, it has been widened from Ram Bagh to Tangri Bundh. Land has been acquired from the bundh to the river and a nullah has been dug up. Now the water will be pumped into Tangri river and Ambala Cantonment will not be inundated,” he added.

He stated the intake capacity of Gurguria nullah was about 100 cusecs which would be increased to about 400 cusecs. Rs 30 lakh have been received under the Sarkar Apke Dwar programme. Gurguria nullah is going to be cemented within the municipal limits. From Railway colony to Gara
Bara, Gurguria nullah would be deepened, he said.

Mr Anil Vij said once the work on the drain was completed, it would ensure that Ambala Cantonment was no longer flood-prone.

Kurukshetra, April 20
The state Transport Minister, Mr Ashok Arora, flagged off a daily bus service linking local historical and religious places, “Kurukshetra darshan”, here last evening. The minister reiterated that the Haryana state Transport Nigam would not be privatised.

Clarifying the state government’s stand Mr Arora told Haryana Roadways employees that none of the Haryana Roadways depots were being closed by retrenching any employee. A fleet of 600 buses will be added to the roadways fleet during the current financial year, he added. Mr Arora said the introduction of two new bus linking local historical and religious places was a step to bring Kurukshetra on the international tourist map for which the Union Tourism Ministry had sanctioned Rs 10 crore.

The bus service will start at 9 a.m. 11 a.m. and 2.30 p.m. daily from Pipli, 5 km from here and after passing through Sectors 2-7 bus stand, the railway station, Panorama Chowk, Shri Krishna Museum, Brahamsarover, Birla Mandir, Baanganga, Dayalpur, Harsh-Ka-Teela, Narkaataari and Mirzapur. It will terminate at Jyotisar, where Lord Krishna is believed to have delivered the message of Shrimadbhagwadgeeta to Arjuna during the Mahabharata war.

Similarly, the second bus service starting from Pipli at 11 a.m. would pass through the Sectors 2-7 bus stand, Bhadrakaali Mandir, Sheikh Chehali Tomb, Narkaataari and Bheesham Kund and will terminate at Jyotisar.

The Haryana State Transport Commissioner, Mr Rajan Gupta, said the roadways would ply more buses for pilgrimage purpose if required. Moreover, bus drivers and conductors having polite nature will be put on duty so that the tourists do not face any difficulty, he added.

Chandigarh, April 20
Mr Karamvir Singh, president of the Haryana unit of the All India Confederation of SC/ST & BC Organisations, and Mr M L
Sarwan, president of the Haryana Valmiki Mahasabha, have condemned the warning given to Mr Ragdara Atwal, an MP from Maharashtra.

In a joint statement here today, Mr Karamvir Singh and Mr Sarwan said that Mr Atwal had championed the case of Dalits in Parliament and was instrumental in getting many benefit-for untouchables. His voice cannot be gagged by issuing threatening letters to him, the statement said.

Chandigarh, April 20
The state executive committee of Haryana Chamber of Commerce and Industry at its meeting held at Ambala today unanimously elected Mr C.B. Goyal as its state president for 2002-04. Mr Goyal is an industrialist based in Panchkula.

A press note issued here today added that Mr D.P. Kalra from Panipat and Mr Babu Ram Gupta from Kaithal were respectively elected senior vice-president and vice-president of the
HCCI.

Kurukshetra, April 20
According to the Controller of Examinations, Kurukshetra University, Dr J.S. Kadian, the annual examinations for postgraduate classes of the university will start on May 1. Roll number slips along with datesheets of candidates have already been despatched.

In case a candidate does not received the roll number slips up to April 4, they should contact the branches of examinations concerned to collect duplicate roll number slips during office hours.

They will have to submit with the office two recent attested photographs of self.